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Margo Howard | 07/07/2009 10:00 am

Today Is the Day, by Margo Howard

On the day of Michael Jackson’s funeral, our ‘Dear Margo’ reflects on the ‘surreal’ life — and death — of the iconic pop singer.
Margo Howard

Editor’s Note: A longtime journalist, Margo Howard went into the family business (her mother was the fabled Ann Landers) in the 1990s as Dear Prudence. Her broad experience and understanding of human nature provide answers for the troubled — and entertainment for everyone else. Margo’s advice column, Dear Margo, appears twice a week — on Thursdays and Fridays — on wowOwow.com.

This is a very delicate subject to write about, and I wavered, but I decided to do it because it is all so fascinating, in a loony kind of way, and says quite a bit about our country. I am talking about the aftermath of Michael Jackson’s death. It is becoming surreal, as perhaps was his life. (Let us stipulate that there is perhaps no one who does not think the man was an enormous and charismatic talent.) For one thing, the city of Los Angeles (along with the state it is part of, California) is flat broke, and the funereal circus coming to town is estimated to stick the city for two million bucks in services and overtime. The hotels, however, are getting a shot in the arm … forgive the infelicitous phrase in this particular discussion.

And then one wonders why all these fans feel the need to go to a memorial service where there will be more pushing and shoving than at a European soccer match. The need to be there is crowd hysteria; it is one thing to have admired an artist and to be sad he has died, but quite another to go to a stranger’s service. Some lottery winners (yes, there are tickets, which are actually spangly wristbands) have said they just needed to sign the book. I wonder who they think is going to read this book with thousands of names unknown to anyone. And I wonder if there’s ever been a memorial service for 20,000 people? (Never mind that there were 1,600,000 applications.) Perhaps an inducement was to see people such as Stevie Wonder, Mariah Carey, Usher, Lionel Richie, Kobe Bryant, Jennifer Hudson, John Mayer and Martin Luther King III … and maybe see them perform. Fifty theaters nationwide will be broadcasting the services. This is surely a first.

Jackson’s good buddy, Elizabeth Taylor, in this instance the exemplar of good taste, said she will be mourning in private. She said this on Twitter. "I just don’t believe that Michael would want me to share my grief with millions of others," she tweeted. "How I feel is between us."

Debbie Rowe, the mother (sort of) of two of Michael’s children, planned to come, then decided against it … I suspect for different reasons than Ms. Taylor.

There is nothing that is not news about Jackson’s demise. It was announced Monday that he will be buried without his brain. This is so that it can harden, allowing pathologists to do tests to that will reveal what substances the singer has taken over a period of time.

311 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

Margo Howard
Thanks so much. And this is a birthday with a zero in it. Oy.
By Margo Howard on 07/09/2009 11:25 pm
RaininMinneapolis

Happy Birthday, Margo, and all the best to you!

By RaininMinneapolis on 07/09/2009 11:57 pm
IMLIZZIE
Happy 40th birthday. You don’t look a day older than 30!
By IMLIZZIE on 07/10/2009 2:31 am
Margo Howard

Actually, you have inadvertantly hit on the number! Many thanks.

By Margo Howard on 07/10/2009 9:56 am
LinCercone

HI MARGODIDN’T KNOW IT WAS YOUR BD - SO HAPPY, HAPPY, HEALTHY BIRTHDAY TO YOUACTUALLY, YOU DO LOOK CLOSER TO 40 THAN ANY LATER AGE, YOU LOOK FABULOUS.

LOVE YOUR WEBENJOY YOU SOOO MUCH.

By LinCercone on 07/10/2009 10:11 pm
DawnSmith
Yeah Right !! I suppose you could do it if you had a staff of psychologists to answer your letters for you. I personally look forward to the end of the week when your columns appear. Your wit (and wisdom) is unparalleled in the advice column business. Thank you for being YOU.
By DawnSmith on 07/10/2009 12:10 pm
deberB

Well, first of all, today is July 7th not the 8th!

I’m not into the Michael Jackson "circus."   He was a wonderful entertainer and artist but this circus atmosphere  is way over the top in my opinion.  

He had a dark side to his life and he was a weird individual.   No one can deny that.

By deberB on 07/07/2009 9:49 am
SG3
Why so much attention? I believe Americans are in a mindset where they are afraid. Drama actually rules peoples lives. From day to day some do not know if they will have a roof or afford their medication. So why ,escapism. For a brief moment they are transported back into a younger time in life. A time when everything seemed better. Don’t get me wrong I believe he was quite the talent. Sadly now Jordan Chandler has come out and said Micheal did not molest him. That his father wanted the money and made him lie.Too bad the kid didn’t reveal this while he was alive. Were I the Jackson family I would be suing the father on the testimony of the son.As for the republican representative I have read Micheal’s fans are raising money now for a campaign to defeat him next election.
By SG3 on 07/07/2009 9:54 am
JenniferMc

do you have a more legitimate link to the Chandler story than i found? the story i saw looked completely fabricated by a fan and not fact-checked. i can’t remember which site it was on, but the article i read mixed up dad’s and kid’s name and was terribly writen—not that grammar and syntax matter anymore in this world of internet journalism (obvious exceptions apply, such as this site). i will try to find the one that i read and post a link to it, but i can’t do that until i’m at home later today.

between the "too convenient" factor and the numerous errors in the story i read, i have to say that the "Chandler retracts!" story that i saw is not legit.

By JenniferMc on 07/07/2009 11:40 am
SG3

I did see something on the Huffington Post the other day.

By SG3 on 07/07/2009 1:35 pm
RachelF
Ahh, the definitive source…if it’s on huff po, god has spoken…
By RachelF on 07/07/2009 3:31 pm
JenniferMc

i do heart me some Huffington Post. ;) thank the lord for Fark.com, which introduced me to Huffy Po. i am truly indebted.

that could be where the original link i saw was, but hopefully, they cleaned it up and made it actually make sense before they posted it there. my other favorite place to get my news would the local Examiner.com sites. some of those writings are, um, really hard to make sense of.

By JenniferMc on 07/07/2009 3:40 pm
JenniferMc

AWESOME. i couldn’t find it when i googled it, but someone linked to the blog in a comment on another site. this is a link to the "story" i read about a week ago or so. http://michaeljacksonebmeier.wordpress.com/2009/06/28/jordan-chandler-admits-he-lied-about-michael-jackson/ if you read closely (or, not so closely, depending on how observant you are), you’ll see many mistakes in this article that i don’t believe can be blamed on the fact that it was obviously originally written in another language.

also, i apologize for my apparent inability to proofread correctly right now. for some reason, i keep leaving out letters and words in my posts and not catching it. it’s always awesome to talk about how other people make sense when i can’t put a sentence together myself.

By JenniferMc on 07/07/2009 11:48 pm
SG3
Jennifer you mean your human like the rest of us:) LOL
By SG3 on 07/08/2009 8:38 am
JenniferMc
me? human? oh, say it isn’t so!! ;)
By JenniferMc on 07/08/2009 8:57 am